Calculated Risk (A Cross Security Investigation Book 2) Read online

  “Why didn’t you keep your valuables in locked cases or a safe?” I asked.

  Knox stared at me as if I’d said something in Klingon. “I bought them to enjoy them. I have them on display so I can see them. Now, when I go home, there’s nothing but bare walls and shelves.” He looked utterly distraught. “I’d do anything to get my stuff back. I can’t believe someone would stoop so low to do something like this. Cash is one thing, but a man’s prized possessions are something else entirely.”

  “So you think the thieves took your collection as a personal attack? To add insult to injury?”

  “I don’t know. I never thought this would happen.” He scratched his neck. “You keep saying thieves. Why do you think it’s more than one guy?”

  “The police said a crew’s been hitting houses in the area. They’re under the impression they are responsible for the break-in at your place, which means once they try to fence or pawn your collection, they’ll get nabbed.”

  “I don’t want to wait for that to happen. By then, it’ll be too late. It could all be gone.” His breath became frantic, and his cheeks pinkened. “I didn’t hire you to fall into line with what the cops think. During my consultation, you said you didn’t buy into that. Have you changed your mind? Maybe this isn’t the right fit for me after all.”

  He moved to stand, and I watched, waiting to see if he’d storm out. Instead, he stopped mid-squat, his hands firmly grasping the arms of the chair while he waited for my answer.

  “You seem certain this isn’t the same crew. What aren’t you telling me?” I asked.

  “Nothing, but you said recovering my stolen collection wasn’t a police priority.”

  “It isn’t, but I’ll make it mine.”

  “That’s not how it sounded a second ago.”

  I cleared my throat, forgetting how much hand-holding went into dealing with non-corporate clients. “In that case, I apologize for the miscommunication. However, you said taking your collection felt personal, which indicates whoever did this knows about your hobby and how big of a score taking these items really is.”

  “Like I was targeted by a professional thief?”

  “Given the way the security system was dismantled, more than one individual was involved in the actual crime.” I reached for the copy of the police report. “I’ve done my homework on your security system. In order to dismantle it so as not to trip the alarm, three people had to remove the connectors from these three boxes simultaneously. So it is a crew, whether or not it’s the same crew who’s been targeting other houses has yet to be seen. Since you are such a sports enthusiast, I’m guessing you must frequent auction sites and message boards. Have you bragged to anyone online about your scores?”

  “Sure, I guess.”

  “Okay.” I made a note to take a look at his browser history to see if another sports fan had gotten pissed and decided to take what he wanted instead.

  “I have paperwork on everything that was taken. Certificates of sale and authenticity.” He grabbed the attaché case off the seat beside him and pulled out a folder. “The information on the auction sites and houses where I made the purchases is included.”

  “Great.” Too bad all my clients weren’t this prepared. I took the folder and skimmed the information. This would require several phone calls, employee background checks, and possibly a peek into their records for details on the other bidders interested in these stolen items. If nothing else, the losing bidders might have their ears to the ground on ways to obtain these treasured pieces of sports history through less than legal means. I’d have to do some digging. “What about insurance?”

  “My house insurance covers theft up to a certain amount. I didn’t upgrade when I made these last few purchases.”

  I clicked the messenger icon on my computer and typed a message to Justin, asking him to see if Knox had made any inquiries into selling his collection or any of the more expensive pieces from the collection. Unless he had already sold off the stolen items, I didn’t think this was an insurance scam.

  “Do you think you can find them?” Knox asked. “They’re all special, but that ring is one of a kind. It’s my most prized possession. My dad had scrimped and saved to take me to that game. That’s the game where my favorite player got named MVP and received the ring. My dad passed recently, so I never got to show him what I bought as a memento, but it has special meaning to me.”

  “I’ll do what I can. You said your friends and colleagues wouldn’t do anything like this. What about a vengeful ex?”

  He shook his head.

  “What about recent paramours? A crew broke into your house. Perhaps, they have a fourth working with them who picks out the marks, assesses the layout and security, and reports back.”

  “You make this sound like a heist.”

  “Wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, I guess it was.”

  “So girlfriends? Hookups? Any new people come into your house or life in the last few weeks?”

  “No one. I wouldn’t put it past my college ex, but we haven’t seen each other in half a decade. She’s never been to my house or seen the MVP ring or my recent additions.”

  Thoughts of Jade drifted to mind, my blood boiling at the thought of her vengeful ex and the damage he inflicted. My back still pinched every time I turned too quickly, and my legs would go numb on occasion. The doctors said that was normal, and the symptoms should continue to improve as long as I continued doing the exercises and following their advice. Nonetheless, it pissed me off every time it happened.

  “Yoo-hoo.” He waved his hand in front of my face. “You still with me?”

  “I’ll look into her anyway.” Picking up the pen, I remained poised to write until he finally gave me her name. While he expounded on what went wrong between them, I ran a quick background check and did several searches. She wasn’t responsible. She didn’t even live in the tri-state area. Sighing, I tossed my pen back on the desk. “Do you have any enemies or some sort of fucked up family drama or sibling rivalry going on?”

  “Not that I can think of.”

  “Is it possible this could be a prank?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Okay, so we’re back to looking at a professional crew, most likely comprised of strangers.” Still, the surgical precision of the break-in made me question that assessment. “Can you think of any other collectors who might want to take your collection from you?”

  While Knox blathered on, I took notes, but strangers on the other end of the bidding wars wouldn’t necessarily know where Knox lived or what kind of security he had in place. The break-in wouldn’t have been this clean. Something didn’t fit.

  “When can you start searching?” he asked.

  “I’ve already started.”

  “Okay. How long do you think it’ll take?”

  “For a recovery?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll reach out to fences, do some research, and see what’s what. I told you before that I can’t guarantee results. But your chances are better with me than the police department.”

  “What kind of odds are we talking?”

  I’d never worked a recovery before, but finding stolen property and returning it shouldn’t be that difficult, especially when dealing with one of a kind items like these. I could probably put the word out, offer a huge payday, and wait for the thieves to surface. The bringing them to justice part would be more difficult, especially since I was to recover the evidence, not turn it in, but that would be up to my client to decide. He just wanted his stuff back. “Fifty-fifty.”

  “All right, let’s see what you can do.” He shook my hand.

  Three

  “You’ve got it bad.” Miranda held the tiny coffee mug beneath her chin, letting the steam rise. “How long were you two together?”

  “Come on, Miranda, we’re here to talk about your business, not my personal life.”

  She made a pfft sound and stared at me with those big doe eyes. No wonder millions o
f people bought her albums, posters, and t-shirts. Sure, she might have been one of the biggest names in the music industry, but it wasn’t entirely about her music. It was about her look. The sex appeal. The husky voice. The way she moved. We’d had our share of fun on a few occasions. That had been when I was in charge of investing her money and raking in the millions. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Lucien. I asked for you to be put on my accounts because I could tell you were a real go-getter. I’ve just never seen you want to get someone before. This is new for you, isn’t it? I bet women fall at your feet. You’ve probably never had to pursue one before. Flowers are good. Jewelry’s better. Do you know her ring size?”

  I ignored her prying questions. “You asked for me to be put on your accounts because I was the best looking guy in the office and you had an ulterior motive.”

  “That too. But I wasn’t wrong about the go-getter part. You made me enough smart investments that I was able to tell the label to shove it and branch out on my own. And let’s not forget the celebratory sex.”

  My hand went through my hair, a nervous tic I had yet to shake.

  She laughed. “I love making you squirm.” She checked her phone. “Want to check-in to a hotel for lunch?”

  “We have business to discuss.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me, placed the cup on the desk, and picked up a pen. “Fine. I want a full detail to accompany me for the rest of my tour. Twenty-four hour protection, not just at the venues but in the hotels, at home, restaurants, clubs, whatever.”

  “You’ll need more than six guards for twenty-four hour protection, if you continue to have a four-person entourage.”

  “My entourage is a lot bigger than four, but I know what you mean. At shows, I’ll need six.”

  “I thought your band had a security team.”

  “It does. The business does, but this is personal security just for me. Band security does what it can, but they work more crowd control than anything. In private or when I am out without the party, I only need two.”

  “Eight then, at least to start.” Twelve would be ideal, but I couldn’t give her every trained security member I had on the payroll. Opening a note tab, I added another candidate search to the list of things to do and reserved two days to conduct interviews next week. Until we got the new offices, the security teams remained on call until I needed them. “We might want to revisit this in a few months and consider an upgrade.”

  She snickered. “Only if you sneak away for lunch.”

  “I can do lunch. I just can’t do you.”

  “Pity.” She signed the contract and slid it across the desk. “You were always good in the sack. What if I upgrade to two years instead of one? Do I get you as a perk?”

  “You realize by signing with my firm, in essence, you’re employing me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m not harassing you, sexually or otherwise. If I were, you wouldn’t be enjoying it this much.”

  That was true, and I didn’t want to quibble. “Where would you like to go to lunch?”

  She waved a dismissive hand at me. “You’re really not going to tell me about the girl?”

  “There is no girl.”

  “Justin said you’re picking someone up from the airport.”

  “Justin’s fired.” I leaned toward my open office door and raised my voice a little. “Did you hear that?”

  “What, sir? You’ll have to use the intercom,” Justin called from the main room.

  Miranda giggled. “I don’t see how you get any work done around here.”

  “We don’t.” I’d been useless most of the day as my thoughts kept drifting to Jade and what I needed to do before I picked her up and what would happen once I did.

  Miranda climbed out of the chair. “Fine, don’t tell me about the girl. But she must be something special to have you so smitten that you’d give up on lunch.”

  “I said we could go to lunch.”

  “That’s not the lunch I was talking about.” She leaned over and pressed her lips against my cheek. “I’ll give you a raincheck for the next time I’m in town, but you might not need it. I hope things work out with you and the mystery woman. You’re a good guy, Lucien. You should have everything you want. Just don’t be a chickenshit, and make sure she knows what you want. Girls don’t like games.”

  “Isn’t that from one of your songs?”

  She laughed softly. “Oh, if you think you’re going to trick me into giving you a private concert, you’re mistaken.”

  “I’ll see you again in three months,” I said. She quirked an eyebrow at me. “I’m in charge of your personal security. I know your schedule by heart. I probably know it better than you. You’ll be playing a gig in the city in three months. I’ll be there.”

  “You better be.” She went to the door. “Remind me to have someone leave an extra ticket at the door for your lady friend, if that’s still going on.”

  I walked her to the door and leaned against the jamb while she said a few parting words to Justin and signed a t-shirt for Gloria’s niece. Two Cross Security specialists escorted her out of the office and to the elevator.

  “We need to hire more security specialists,” I said. “Pull the resumes we have on file. If no one looks good enough, we’ll have to reach out again and start another search.”

  “Yes, sir.” Justin slid backward toward the filing cabinets and opened the middle drawer.

  “And one more thing, don’t mention Jade to anyone else.”

  “Miranda’s different. You’ve known her for years. She’s your friend.”

  “Still, this is business. Let’s keep church and state separate.”

  “Can’t do that if you slept with her,” Gloria murmured, earning a surprised look from me. “Sorry, I just can’t believe you slept with her. She’s a literal rock star.”

  “Who said I slept with her?” I glared at Justin’s back.

  “She did,” Gloria said.

  I squeezed the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on. “Don’t believe everything our clients say.”

  “Or everything our boss says,” Justin warned her. He placed the stack of files on the edge of his desk. “Do you want me to start on this now or continue looking into Mr. Knox’s case?”

  “Stick with Knox and see what you find. I’ll skim through these and let you know what I want to do before I leave today.” I also needed to review my notes for my next appointment. “Gloria, I hate to ask, but would you mind ordering lunch for the office?”

  “First breakfast and now lunch. Shew, I’m gonna need a raise.” She grinned at me and winked at Justin.

  “Did someone put a sign on my back or something?” I bent my elbow and reached behind me, feeling the twinge near my left shoulder blade. But I refused to let that put a damper on my mood. “Did Mr. Knox ask you to take one of his signed baseball bats to my balls?”

  “Sorry, sir,” Gloria said. “What would you like for lunch?”

  “Have the sandwich place down the street bring a platter of half sandwiches, salads, and soups.” My fridge at home was nearly empty, and I didn’t want Jade to starve. The leftovers would suffice until I found out how long she was staying.

  Gloria started dialing while I hefted the files off Justin’s desk and went back into my office, coaxing the door to close by hooking my ankle around the bottom corner and giving it a yank as I went inside. It remained cracked open, but that was good enough. I didn’t need complete privacy. After all, someone had to keep an eye on Justin and Gloria, or the inmates would be running the asylum in no time.

  Settling behind my desk, I reviewed my notes in order to prep and practice for my afternoon meetings, but my mind was elsewhere. I tapped my pen on the legal pad, finding myself doodling in the corner instead of listing the bullet points of my presentation. Maybe I needed more coffee.

  “Do you need something?” Justin asked when I stepped out of my office.

  “A lobotomy.”

  “I’ll give it a whirl.”r />
  “You would, wouldn’t you?”

  He laughed. “Do you want me to have a car deliver you to Miranda’s hotel?”

  Turning, I stared at my assistant, unsure if that was a joke. But he had the best poker face I’d ever seen. It rivaled mine on days when I wasn’t losing it. “Actually, while you’re pulling info on security specialists, see what you can find in terms of executive assistants.”

  “Are we in the market?”

  I matched his look. “It’s possible.”

  I made another espresso, grabbed three half-sandwiches to keep the acid from eating away whatever was left of my stomach lining, and went back into my office.

  “Focus,” I mumbled to myself. In a whisper, I ran through my presentation for my first meeting, hitting the high points. I jotted down a few more notes, checked the time, and revised my presentation again.

  After lunch, I wiped away whatever crumbs there might be, tidied my appearance, and waited for my next potential client. The afternoon went by slowly, like a snail stuck in a wad of discarded chewing gum. But the meetings were advantageous. By the time six o’clock rolled around, Cross Security had two new corporate clients and an extensive list of things to do. That alone would keep us busy for the next month.

  “We might have to hire a few freelancers to help us out on the IT side of things. I’ll have to see if we can stagger our assessments. With any luck, I won’t have to do two overhauls at the same time.” Palming my keys, I checked the time again. Rush hour traffic could be a bear. In another ninety minutes, things would calm down, and I wouldn’t have to spend the same amount of time stuck in traffic, trying to get to the airport. Perhaps I’d stop by the liquor store after dropping the leftovers off at home. Jade didn’t like gin, which was my drink of choice, or scotch, which is what a lot of my clients enjoyed. She liked tequila, rum, and wine.